Grain carts are typically used to transfer grain or other crop material from a combine harvester to a grain truck or bin. The grain cart typically comprises a storage hopper for crop material, an auger assembly for emptying crop material from the storage hopper and a set of ground wells so that the grain cart can be towed. A tractor is commonly used to tow the grain cart and the auger assembly of the grain cart can be driven off the power take off (PTO) of the tractor (although hydraulics, etc. could also be used to power the auger assembly).
In use, the grain cart is towed by the tractor to a combine harvester where the crop material is unloaded from the combine harvester into the grain cart. With the crop material loaded into the storage hopper of the grain cart, the tractor can tow the grain cart to a truck, trailer, storage bin, etc. and use the auger assembly to unload the crop material from the grain cart into the truck, trailer, storage bin, etc.
Grain carts typically have an operating position and a transport position. In the operating position, the auger assembly is unfolded so that the upper end of the auger assembly extends out past the side of the grain cart making it easier to discharge crop material out of the grain cart into an adjacent truck, trailer, storage bin, etc. In the transport position, the auger assembly is folded so that the upper section of the auger assembly is pivoted more parallel with the lower auger section so that the auger assembly does not extend by much or at all past the side of the grain cart, making it easier to maneuver the grain cart without fear of hitting something with the extended auger.
However, on some grain carts, a spout on the end of the auger assembly can be rotated to allow an operator to direct the crop material being discharged out of the grain cart and particularly the auger assembly a bit to aid in aiming the discharging crop material into the adjacent truck, trailer, storage bin, etc. Because the auger assembly is placed adjacent to the front of the storage hopper, if the spout is rotated towards the back of the grain cart when the auger assembly is folded, the spout can hit the storage hopper during the folding and can cause damage to the spout and/or the storage hopper.
Ideally, an operator will remember to rotate the spout out of the way, but this may not always happen especially when the operator is moving load after load in the grain cart or the operator may think the spout is rotated out of the way, but may not see or realize that it is in position to contact the storage hopper.
It is therefore desirable to have the spout automatically rotate out of the way when an operator folds the auger assembly for transport. While there have been previous attempts to automate this, such attempts have typically been quite complex and required a lot of modifications to a typical grain cart.